


Whatever Happens, Happens; Time Travel's a Bitch

by W01FS0NG



Series: Not Confused, Just Lost [2]
Category: Lost
Genre: Ab Aeterno, Dharma - Freeform, Gen, Ghosts, Hurt, MiB is a manipulative bastard, Richard's perspective, Season 5 of Lost - Freeform, Season 6 of Lost - Freeform, Time traveling character, bilinguals, fluff?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:27:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28984854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/W01FS0NG/pseuds/W01FS0NG
Summary: Ricardo wished for many things. Above all, he wished that she didn’t have to die.Sometimes, people just need to stare at the ocean for a while.See how one person is affected by another (who just so happens to be a time traveller)
Series: Not Confused, Just Lost [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2124930
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion fic with another fic in this series called Lian Yu.
> 
> Also, I created this as a challenge for myself to do alternate POVs on the same story.

Ricardo wished for many things. Above all, he wished that she didn’t have to die. Who was he thinking about? There were two women he loved in his life, and he lost both of them. The first was his wife Isabella. The second was a girl he met on this God-forsaken island.

If his wife hadn’t fallen ill and died, then perhaps he wouldn’t have killed the doctor. Then, he wouldn’t have confessed his sin to a corrupt Priest who sold him to slavers. In turn, the ship of the said slavers would have never have brought him to the island he doesn’t even know the name of. The island which brought him torment. The island that gave him Rachel then snatched her away.

Rachel. It’s only been a day since her passing and he’s already staring out into the ocean. Why did she have to die? Why did that monster of a man have to kill her? She didn’t deserve it. 

Rachel was already here when he crashed on this rock. The meeting had been very unusual. This god-like being whom he had been sent to kill by that smoke guy was dunking him in water. He begged for the man to stop when he swore he heard a woman’s voice.

“Hey!” she shouted. “What are you doing?” It wasn’t Isabella's voice, he realized. There was an accent she had that he could not quite place. Or, maybe he wasn’t hearing quite right. This maniac was dunking his head in seawater rapidly. He hoped to God that Isabella was somewhere around here. He hoped that the strange smoke man was right. He hoped to be reunited with his wife again. So, he wanted to live. He desperately wanted to live.

“Proving to him that he’s alive!” The blonde man shouted. He then lifted him out of the water. “Still think you’re dead?! Why should I stop?!”

He was glad to be inhaling air instead of trying to hold his breath in saltwater. “Because I want to live!” Ricardo exclaimed. God, he wanted to live. He was not ready to die at this moment. Not even in the slightest.

“That’s the first sensible thing you’ve said to me,” the man said as he dragged Ricardo out of the water. “What’s your name?”

“Ricardo,” the Spaniard said as he stumbled forward into the sand.

“Ricardo,” the mysterious blonde man bent down. “Get up, we need to talk.” He then turned to the woman. “You too, sweetheart!”

She gave him a look. “I already heard what you have to say,” she told him. It was said like a complaint.

“Not completely,” the man told her.

She huffed and sat down on a nearby log. Ricardo soon joined her. Studying the woman, he found that she was younger than he originally thought. She had red-brown hair and pale skin. Her eyes were hazel with blue flecks. She didn’t wear a dress. Actually, he wasn’t sure what she was wearing. There was a top, yes, but also a hood. Her pants were made from a material he wasn’t sure that he ever saw before. She didn’t talk to him as they both waited for the blonde man to exit the structure under this four-toed statue. When he did, he had wine with him.

“What is inside?” Ricardo asked him.

“No one comes in unless I invite them,” he told him. He gestured his hand as if offering them wine. They both declined.

“Are you the Devil?” was Ricardo’s next question.

The woman sitting beside him chortled. “So that was his play,” she muttered. The Spaniard peered at her, confused. “Oh,” she noticed the stares. “Did I say that out loud?” She winced. “Sorry, um, I spoke to the Man in Black before rushing over here.” She made eye contact with the blonde man. “He vaguely told me what he was doing, so I decided to check on you.” So then, she knew the Man in Black? The Spaniard wondered about how well she knew him and if they worked together.

“And here I thought you weren’t going to pick sides,” the blonde told her as he sat down next to Ricardo.

Okay then, thought the dark-haired man. So she isn’t on anyone’s side? He guessed that meant she didn’t always get involved.

“Believe me, I’m not.” The blonde gave her a strange look before his eyes flickered between her and Ricardo. This only made the Spaniard more confused.

“I’m sorry,” said the black-haired male. “But have I missed something?”

“Not really,” the young woman shrugged. She then gestured towards the other man. “That’s Jacob, by the way. He brought your ship to the island, as he brought many people to the island.”

Ricardo faced him with a creased brow. “You brought it here? Why?”

Jacob picked up the wine bottle, making the red liquid circle around. He said, “Think of this wine as what you keep calling Hell. There are many names for it too: malevolence, evil, darkness. And here it is, swirling around in the bottle, unable to get out because if it did, it would spread.” He corked the bottle before turning it upside down. The cork is this island, and it’s the only thing keeping the darkness where it belongs. That man who sent you to kill me believes that everyone is corruptible because it’s in their very nature to sin. I bring people here to prove them wrong. And when they get here, their past doesn’t matter.”

“Before you brought my ship, there were others?” Ricardo wanted clarification.

Jacob nodded. “Yes, many.”

The dark-haired man gestured to the auburn-haired young woman. “Is she one of them?”

Jacob glanced at her before saying, “She was, yes. Everyone else is dead.”

“Did she kill them?”

The young woman huffed out a small laugh. “No,” she explained. “They were long dead before I got here.”

Ricardo thought about this for a moment. Everyone else was dead? What happened to them? Did that other guy kill them? Did they kill each other? “But if you brought them here, why didn’t you help them?”

The blonde shrugged. “Because I wanted them to help themselves. To know the difference between right and wrong without me having to tell them. Rachel here,” he gestured towards her. “She gets it. How? I’m not exactly sure.” He and Ricardo locked eyes. “It’s all meaningless if I have to force them to do anything. Why should I have to step in?”

“If you don’t, he will,” Ricardo pointed out. A glance at Rachel told him that she liked his response.

“Then why don’t you do it?” Rachel suggested. She then faced Jacob. “Make him a sort of intermediary between you and the incoming people. I sure as hell am not going to do it.”

“Exactly my thinking,” the Protector of the island muttered.

“What will I get in return?” the Spaniard asked.

Jacob shrugged. “You tell me.”

“I want my wife back.”

The man pursed his lips. “Can’t do that.”

“Can you absolve me of my sins so that I don’t go to Hell?”

“I can’t do that either.”

“Then…” he thought about this for a tiny moment. “I never want to die. I want to live forever.”

“Now _that_ I can do.” He touched Ricardo on the shoulder. The dark-haired man didn’t feel any different.

About three weeks later, Ricardo encountered Rachel again. He almost couldn’t understand that during those weeks, he hadn’t seen her once. The last time they met, it didn’t seem as though she _wanted_ to get to know him. Was she trying to avoid him? Or was this just a huge island?

He found her on a beach singing a tune he had never heard. “What were you singing?” he asked her as he moved to sit down next to her.

She seemed alarmed by his appearance as if not expecting him. “Uhm, I’m sorry?”

“The song you were singing.” He paused. “It sounded nice.”

She smiled, choosing to look at the sand. “Uh, thanks.” Looking back at him, her brows creased. “You’re Ricardo, right?” The man gave her a short smile and nod. “I’m Rachel -- but you knew that.”

Ricardo glanced at the sea stretching out before them. “So, how did you get here?” He figured that she came here via boat, but he didn’t think that she was brought here on a slave ship like he was.

“I um,” she paused. “To be honest, I’m not exactly sure. I sort of just, woke up here? If that makes sense?” he shrugged and nodded. The young woman stood. “Hey, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

“What year is it?”

“It’s 1867. Or at least, I think it is.” Was that the year? Yeah, right? Or did the agony of the journey take as long as it felt?

“You think?” She wanted clarification.

“When I left, it was. I’m confident that it is still that year.”

She sat back down with a huff, bringing her knees to her chest. 

“How long have you been here?” he asked her.

“Fifty-six days.” She glanced at him briefly. “I washed up here originally, but since then, I’ve moved inland.”

Now that was something interesting. “Why? Do you not wish to be rescued?” Another boat could come by here, surely.

Her eyes studied the sand beneath her feet. Her bare toes dug themselves in. “I’ve long since given that up.

He pursed his lips into a frown before nodding. “Where are you from?”

”New Zealand.” He gave her a questioning look, not knowing where that was. “It’s an island English colony off the coast of Australia. You?”

”I’m from Spain. I came here by mistake.”

She sat straighter. “What makes you think that?”

”It’s just, I killed a man.” Rachel blinked. Her brows creased. “I was supposed to be executed, you see? But some Englishmen saw fit to enslave me. Now I’m here.”

She hummed, taking in his words. “Do you still believe this is Hell?”

He shrugged. “Can’t rightly say, at the moment.” His eyes looked at mine. “Do you really think I’m immortal?”

“Yes. I believe you are. Even if you left this island, I bet you would still be immortal.”

Ricardo nodded. “Thank you, Rachel.”

“Of course.”

Even then, she still confused him, and he had many questions about her. In the next coming weeks, he made a shelter for himself to live in, by the river. The next time he saw her, she came bearing a gift: freshly caught fish. As they ate, they got around to talking about where they came from.

“What was New Zealand like?” He asked her. He sat in a cross-legged position. 

“Well, for one thing, it’s way hotter than here and gets less rain. It’s quite mountainous. Some of those mountains include active volcanoes, but they won’t erupt for a few hundred years. My country basically consists of two very long islands. I grew up speaking English, knowing a bit of Maori, and Korean. There’s this long-beaked flightless bird native to the islands called a kiwi. New Zealanders can also be called kiwis, that’s just a nickname.” She glanced at him. “What about Spain?”

“I lived on an Islas called the Canary Islands. It was a, uh, muy hermosa. I’m told that the montañas there is the highest in España. It’s very, um, forest-y? I guess you would say. There’s un grande basilica Norte de the town I used to live in.” He went quiet. “Uh,” he spoke again. “Apologies, my English is not very good sometimes.”

She nodded understandingly. “It’s fine.” Then, her eyes lit up. “Hey, maybe I can help you with your English and you can help me learn Spanish???”

He glanced into her eyes, thinking about it for a little while. “Sure. Yes, okay.”

Sixty days later, he’s a little bit better at English and she’s very good at Spanish. Ricardo couldn’t help but wonder if she had an end goal in mind. He got his answer when she walked up to him looking determined.

She asked him in Spanish, “[Did you have a wife?]”

Thinking nothing of it at first, he answered, “[Yes. I did. And she was beautiful.]”

“[What happened to her?]”

He glanced at the ground. “[She died. The doctor wouldn’t give me the medicine, saying that I didn’t have enough.]” Then, he accidentally killed the man out of anger, he thought.

“What did she look like?” she switched to English.

“She had fair, tannish skin, black hair, beautiful light brown eyes. Her name was Isabella.”

She smiled and thanked him before running off. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why she would even ask about his dead wife. She soon came back. “Hey!” she greeted him. Rachel then told him, “[You know, I just had the most interesting conversation.]”

Ricardo gave her a weird look. “[With who?]”

“Your wife.”

He stared at her with astonishment. “[What? What are you talking about?]”

“[She wants to know why you buried her cross necklace.]”

He backed away from her, pointing. “H-how would you know about that?!”

“Because she told me.”

His brows scrunched in confusion. “How is that even possible?”

She turned towards a tree. “[Don’t worry, he will.]”

“[I will what?]”

She huffed, briefly looking down at the ground with her hands on her hips. “She’s standing right next to you, dude. On your left.”

He turned to his left, but he could only find the jungle. “I-I don’t see her.”

“She said your English is beautiful.”

“[Are you... Are you really there?]”

“[CLose your eyes.]” When he did, he imagined his wife standing right in front of him. She said, “[It wasn’t your fault, Ricardo. As much as you wanted to save me, it was my time.]” He began to feel tears under his eyelids. He imagined Isabella wiping the tears away once they fell. “You’ve suffered enough, Ricardo.]”

“[I miss you.]” he told her. “[I would do anything for us to be together again.]”

“[My love, we are already together.]” He could have sworn he felt his wife kiss him on the cheek. 

When he opened his eyes, he found that she wasn’t actually there. Rachel still stood off to the side. “Is she gone?” he asked the redhead.

“Yeah,” she said in a low voice.

He turned towards her, still amazed that this happened. “How did you do that? Speak the dead?”

“Actually,” she breathed out. “It’s more like they talk to me.”

He frowned and walked up to her. As to why he was even going to do this, he had no idea. Maybe he felt compelled to after what she just did for him. Maybe this is the moment he decided that she could be trusted. “Rachel, I’ve been keeping something from you.”

“And that is?” she gave him a quizzical look.

He led her to a spot in the jungle with a stone bench. Then, he dug up the cross he had buried when he set off to fight Jacob all those weeks ago. “I thought I had lost it,” Ricardo stated. “When I first came here. Then after I confronted Jacob, he gave it back to me and told me that if I ever changed my mind, I would be welcomed.” He stopped digging and took out Isabella’s cross. “I buried her thinking that I would never see or speak to her again.” He placed the necklace on. “Thank you, Rachel.”

“You’re very welcome.” The two of them soon parted ways.

  
  


Four years later, the Man in Black came to him. Ricardo had been living a relatively peaceful life on this island. He and Rachel were good friends at this point. And not that it was important, but they’ve explored a good portion of the island. Her eyes always seemed to search for something she knew to be there, but it wasn’t. Not only that, but they lived together in this Temple Rachel found. And yet, the smoke man sought to ruin it. 

As of a few days ago, Rachel hadn’t been back to the Temple. So, Ricardo went to look for her. He found the Man in Black instead. The Man told her all these things about Rachel. Those ideas festered, and not in a good way. They made the Spaniard feel used, and broken. The trust was gone.

Hours later, Rachel found him staring down the edge of a cliff.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a worried tone.

“Do you think if I jumped right now, I would survive the fall into the water?” he didn’t face her.

He heard her steps come closer. “Well,” the young woman hesitated. “You’re immortal. So, the impact wouldn’t kill you. But you wouldn’t drown either. I don’t know, maybe you wouldn’t be able to breathe, but you _would_ still be alive. I wouldn’t recommend trying it, by the way.”

“And why should I listen to what you say?”

“What?” He sensed confusion in her tone.

Finally, he turned towards her with angered, upset eyes.

She looked genuinely scared. “Oh no, what?”

“While I was out searching for you, guess who came up to me.”

Her expression didn’t change. “[Who?]”

“The Man in Black,” he almost seethed. “[You know what he said to me? That you’ve been lying to me. About everything.]” He choked up and said in a lower tone, “[Including Isabella.]”

She stood her ground. “Ricardo, I would never lie about that. I would never even _think_ about what you’re insinuating. _Please._ [Step away from the ridge.]”

“I thought you wouldn’t be able to,” he admitted. “I thought, ‘no, not Rachel. She isn’t the kind of person who would manipulate me into thinking I was speaking with my dead wife. You know what came to mind?! ‘Huh, she _hasn’t_ been back for a few days.’”

She outstretched her arms. “So you're thinking of killing yourself?!”

“You have no idea how much an idea planted in your head can hurt, do you? I see now that he was right. We are in Hell. I’m not _immortal_.” He pronounced that word as if it were a sickness. “If I jump now, then it will all be over.”

Her body seemed to relax, but her voice adopted a quiver. “What else did that manipulator tell you?”

He pointed an accusatory finger at her. “[That you lied about everything!]” He began listing with his hand. “[Where you come from, how you got here.]” Making a gesture with his hands, he shouted, “[All of it!!]”

“You can’t possibly believe him!”

“What can you tell me that can make me believe otherwise?”

She sighed. “I can’t tell you, but I can show you. Please, come back with me to the Temple.”

“Alright fine.”

When they reached the Temple, the sun had risen In one of the corridors, Rachel led him to a brick without hieroglyphics. She took the out and then a very strange version of a rifle. It didn’t look like one he had ever seen before.

“I put this away when I ran out of bullets,” she told him as she examined the weapon.

“That’s a rifle, right?”

She nodded. “Yeah, from 1970 or so.”

His brows raised. “1970?! That’s impossible.”

“Yeah,” she said in a downbeat tone as if saying it was possible. She then took her backpack out and gave him a notebook. It had a strange black and white pattern on it. “This belonged to my father. Pay specific attention to the dates.”

Ricardo flipped through the book. “October 12, 1975,” he mumbled. “November 13, 1980. December 1, 1983.” He paused. This not only had a date, but the entry was also titled. “September 22, 2004. The plane crash.” He peered at her and asked, “What’s a plane?”

She stood abruptly. “It’s a flying vehicle invented in the early 1900s. It’s mostly now used to carry people from place to place. Mine just so happened to crash on this island.”

He peered at her strangely. “I haven’t seen any wreckage other than the ship that brought me here.”

“That’s because it crashed here in the year 2004. Forty or so passengers made camp on this island for ninety days before an event made the island glow. The giant rock we stand on pulled me to a month or so before your ship got here.” His gaze told her that he needed more of an explanation. “I didn’t lie about coming from New Zealand. I didn’t lie about suddenly waking up here. And I certainly didn’t lie about speaking with Isabella.” Her glossy eyes searched through his. “Why don’t you read it? Half of this book is written by my father. I made all kinds of annotations to it. The other half is written by me, right up until the Island dropped me off in 1867.”

Holding the book with his thumb marking a page, he watched her gather some of her things. “Where do I find you when I finish?”

“By the river!”

When she left, he wandered over to his bedding, reading the written words.

On the fifteenth page, it read: “ _Today, Ethan and I wandered through the forest in hopes of finding The Others, as he liked to call it. He doesn’t like to call them The Hostiles. Ethan seems practically infatuated with these people. I just—don’t seem to get why. He’s a cute kid though. I only went along with him to ensure his safety. Well, that, and I too was curious. Not to mention, Benjamin ran off. He told me the other day about how he saw his mother. Which wouldn't have been possible because she’s dead. Anyway, Mom and I have been working in the Pearl for a little while now. That’s getting sooo boring. Yet, she encouraged me to take a notebook for myself.”_

The next page read: _“Oops, I guess I haven’t been writing in this for a few days. Anyway, people brought this Iraqi guy in. I think his name is Sayid. He kept saying that he wasn’t one of the Hostiles, but the adults don’t believe him._

_“Update, when he escaped, he shot Linus! Jin brought him back while Juliet operated on him, and Kate gave him blood. It almost seemed like this Sayid guy was trying to kill Ben.”_

Flipping a few more pages, he read another entry. “ _Today, Ethan and I met this guy named Charles Widmore. He seems like a leader-type person. The man welcomed Ethan into his group. I didn’t exactly like these people, I mean, they’re called Hostiles for a reason. But with Ben and I, they told him that we were only half members.”_

Flipping a bunch more pages, he found something that perplexed him. _“Today, Richard and I stumbled upon a rather interesting spot. I was the one who called it out to him, but when he saw it, he seemed to know it. So I asked him about whose grave it was. He told me, and I quote, “she was a very interesting girl. A bright, fun, amazing person.” I couldn’t get much more out of him than that. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her way before he knew anyone else on this island.”_

Who was this girl? Why would he say such things? Ricardo doesn’t remember any of this happening. Wanting to know more, he flipped to Rachel’s side of the book and started on The Plane Crash.

_“Today, Oceanic flight 815 crashed on an island. Or at least, the midsection did. I don’t think anyone here knows where the tail section or the nose section is. Everyone’s hoping for rescue. Yet, for some reason, I don’t think it’s coming.”_

He flipped a couple more pages.

_“It’s been six days, and still, no one’s come for us. Jack had this whole speech about and I quote, ‘If we don’t live together, we’re gonna die alone.’ Anyway, the doc and Boone had this whole argument because someone drowned today. Boone swam out to try and save her, but he ended up getting swept by some current. Jack ended up saving him. Boone yelled at Jack because he wanted the doc to save the woman, who’s dead. Anyway, to try and prove a point, Boone steals all the water. We didn’t find this out until later, mind you, but-”_

Ricardo flipped a ton of more pages. 

_“I met someone in the woods today, calling himself Richard. I was walking back when he came up to me. He asked me if the Smoke Monster spoke with me yet. Obviously, I thought it was a weird question. I tried to act dumb but that didn’t work. Then he asked about the ghosts I was seeing. For the record, it’s my dad, Elena, Shannon, my mom, and Eko. Then, you guys want to know the weirdest thing? He told me, ‘Your future is my past.’ So, I guess time travel_ is _real?”_

Flipping again, he found another entry. The book-length was starting to get thinner. 

_“Richard showed me my grave today. Earlier in this notebook, my dad wrote about seeing a grave. It’s mine.”_

Ricardo stopped reading. She was going to die sometime in the future. Of course, everyone dies at some point -- well, except for him he guessed -- but why is he bothered by it? Should he be? He should, right? She’s the only person on this rock beside a smoke demon and well, Jacob.

The man wandered out of the Temple to find Rachel. Once he did, he walked up to her and apologized. He slowly began to trust her again. He slowly began to think of her as a friend.

It wasn’t until three years later did he think he was harboring feelings for her. The two of them were just walking through the jungle. Earlier, Rachel suggested that they go for a hike because the Temple was getting boring. Honestly, it sort of was. Seemingly endless corridors with hieroglyphs neither of them knew the meaning of had to be getting tiresome after seeing them for a few years.

He couldn’t help but notice how her hair looked like a quiet blaze in the sunlight, only to be cooled down by the moonlight. He couldn’t help but notice how her nose crinkled when she smiled, or how her eyes seemed to hold every emotion. She looked so happy when they finally reached the top of one of the mountains, basking in the light which had been blocked by the jungle.

Weeks later, the Man in Black struck again. He manipulated his dreams. He saw Isabella’s body lying dead in a cabin. It took him a moment to realize that this wasn’t real. No, it couldn’t be. This was not their house. This was on the island. He already made peace with her death.

Walking outside, he found Rachel’s body, eviscerated, cold, and unmoving. Ricardo became angered once he found the schemer, asking why he would ever do such a thing.

“Why?” The Man smiled. “Ricardo, all I want is you both on my team. Sometimes you can’t have everything. She will die and it will be your fault.”

The dark-haired man awoke with a sweat. His breathing was labored. He glanced over at Rachel's bedding to find her still there. He would feel relieved if it weren’t for her tossing and turning. Whatever she was dreaming about wasn’t pleasant. So, Ricardo rushed over to her and shook her awake, shouting her name.

Once she awoke, he breathed out a sigh of relief. As he rummaged through their things, she peered at him. 

“Have you slept?” She asked.

“No, I couldn’t. I had nightmares of my own.”

She frowned. “About?” 

He didn’t look at her. “You… and Isabella.” Ricardo picked up The Princess Bride, one of the few books she brought from her time. He had been reading a few of her books. This one just so happened to be the latest.

“Can you… read to me?” She asked, sitting up. “It’ll pass the time, and we could forget about our troubles.”

A faint smile crept on his lips. “Sure, come here.” He held the book with one hand and outstretched the other, inviting her to snuggle against him. She hummed as she laid against him. 

As he read it wasn’t long until she dozed off again. He kept reading so that he wouldn’t fall asleep. 

When he looked over at her again, he realized that she was crying in her sleep. It nearly broke her heart. He woke her up again, asking, “Rachel, are you okay? You were crying and making faces in your sleep.”

She looked relieved for the smallest fraction of a second before the tears came pouring down. His heart broke all over again. 

“Hey,” he said as his eyes flickered back and forth between hers. His hand wiped away her tears. “It’s okay.” His strong arms wrapped around her. “You’re okay.” She sobbed on his shoulder. She didn’t calm down for a long while.

The two of them had a genuine, sort of unspoken rule that if you didn’t want to talk about something, you didn’t have to. But in this case, he felt the need for her to open up.

“Rachel,” he said gently. His eyes held the same level of it, but there was also concern mixed in. “What did you see?” She let go of the embrace, but he still kept his arms around her for comfort.

She told him about the first dream. She was surrounded by smoke. Someone spoke then shouted in Latin.

“What exactly did she say?” Ricardo asked, remembering that he knew Latin.

She peered at him for a moment. “You speak Latin.”

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Uh.” She thought for a moment. “Omnis quaeris quaestionem modo ne ad plures interrogationes.’ And, ‘Hiberent.’”

He exhaled. “Every question you ask will only lead to more questions.”

“What?”

“That’s what she said.”

“What about the other phrase?”

“Stop it, or this.”

Her eyes squinted before she frowned. “She was trying to help me,” she muttered. She thought about something for a while. Ricardo was about to say something when she spoke first. “When I woke up in the middle of the night and you read The Princess Bride, was that real?”

He smiled slightly, then frowned when he realized why she would ask such a thing. “Yes, of course it was real.” His fingers stroked through her hair. “What was the other dream about?”

She told him about finding Ricardo dead. The Man in Black told her that it was her fault and that it could be avoided if she joined him. How strange that both of them had similar nightmares.

“Mine was similar.”

The two of them fell into silence. 

Two years later, the two of them wandered through the jungle. When it rained, Rachel didn’t take shelter while he did. “Hey!” She projected, coming up with some idea. “Maybe when your people come, you could teach them Latin.”

“You keep talking to me about ‘my people’ and I still don’t know what to do, think, or even how to prepare.”

“Relax.” She smiled. “You’ll think of something.”

When the rain came down harder, Rach took them to a cave. Their time there was so happy. 

Once inside, Rachel cut her hair with the knife she made. Ricardo was about to read Rachel’s copy of _The Foghorn_ by Ray Bradbury when he heard her speak Latin. He’s taught her a thing or two about the language.

“(What do you think?)” she asked him. He peered at her for a moment. She cut her hair to a nice shoulder length. The waves in her auburn hair were still prevalent.

“I think it looks nice,” he told her in English.

He went back to reading but stopped when she pointed out, “You know, your hair reaches just past your shoulders now.”

He didn’t react. “So?”

“Do you want it cut?” She walked towards him before sitting down. “Or are you just going to keep growing it out and put it into a man bun?”

He blinked, marking his place in the book with his thumb. Giving her a weird look, he asked, “Man bun?”

A small semblance of a smile crept up her lips. “I-it’s when a guy puts his hair in a bun.”

He shrugged. “How would I look with a man bun?”

She pondered in this for a moment before putting the knife down and grabbing his hair. She gathered it behind him and stepped back a little. Next, her lips pursed. Ricardo’s hair fell against his neck. 

“No,” she decided.

“No?” The dark-haired man questioned.

She shook her head. “It doesn’t look good.”

He faked a pout and stared down at the rocky ground. “Oh.”

“Why?” She almost laughed. “Did you want it to work?”

He smiled playfully. “Maybe.”

She giggled, making him chuckle.

They had no idea what was coming.

He was asleep when he heard her calling his name. “Ricardo!!!!” The strange sounds of the smoke accompanied the scream.

Springing to his feet, he ran outside.

“Ricardo!!!!!!” She was being carried away by the smoke.

“Rachel!!!” He shouted as he ran after them, but the smoke sped up. Pretty soon, the Spaniard couldn’t keep up with them. But he pressed on. He couldn’t let the smoke kill her. He just couldn’t. She was too important to him now.

He finally caught up to them in these tunnels underneath the Temple walls. “Rachel?!” He called out, hoping for an answer. The man stepped cautiously through the dark. “Rachel?!” He tried again.

“Ricardo!” She sounded so incredibly weak.

“Rachel!” He found energy as he sprinted over to her.

“[What happened?]” he asked her. She had a stab wound on her diaphragm. That much was obvious, but you need to keep the wounded talking so that they could stay conscious.

“[He tried to get me to join him,]” she explained. “I wouldn’t, even though he tried to turn me with this sickness” Her breaths turned into wheezes. 

Ricardo began to pick her up. “We need to get you to the healing spring.” He was going to save her.

Her hand weakly grabbed his shirt. “Ricardo, I’m okay.”

His eyes began to tear up as he stared down at her almost in shock. “What are you talking about? You’re dying. What-“

“Let me go, Richard,” she interrupted. “We won’t make it to the healing spring in time. I don’t know how this tunnel gets into the structure, and I’ve been laying here a long time. Plus, we don’t even know if the spring would work on me a second time.”

A second time. That’s right. In the future, Ricardo will bring a young Rachel to the spring to heal. But this it had to work a second time. He had to hope that it would. 

“Don’t say that.” He resumed his course. “You can still make it.”

“No, Ricardo,” she said a bit more firmly this time. He peered down at her to see a soft gaze. “It’s OK. Let me go.”

He started shaking. No, this couldn’t happen. The dream with the Man in Black was coming true. This couldn’t be happening. A single tear cascaded down his face. She reached up to wipe it away weakly.

“When the people come, advise them, okay?” She requested of him. Her eyes flickered between his. “You’ll be great.” She wiped away another tear.

“I-I don’t think I’ll be able to do it without you by my side.”

“I’m not immortal, Ricardo,” he hand moved back to her side. “And please don’t ask Jacob to make me. And… whatever happens, happens. You’ll be okay.”

Ricardo brought her body closer to him before he kissed her forehead. Looking back into her eyes, he found them deathly still. And was it him, or did her body feel lighter now? 

Oh. Oh. She was gone forever. There was no turning back of any kind. She’s dead.

The immortal sobbed as he held her corpse tighter and rocked back and forth.

The man didn’t take a break even once when digging her grave. The sun came up when her body was six feet underground and he was carving her name into the wooden grave marker. There was this anger inside him that he didn’t like, but let fester. 

Hearing footsteps, he saw the Man in Black. The immortal’s anger spilled out into his voice. “YOU DID THIS!!!” His grip on Rachel’s knife tightened.

“Ricardo, I-“ he tried to gain some civility.

“WHY ARE YOU HERE?!?!?!” He walked towards The Man who backed up, eyeing the knife.

With his hands up, the Man in Black told him, “This could have been avoided if you both joined me.” He made a small gesture to the Spaniard. “You still can.” He resumed backing away. “And if you ever change your mind, bring me the drawing Rachel did of me, and we’ll talk.”

Ricardo blinked and the man was gone.

After he finished putting her grave together, he just sat there for a while, wallowing. Why did it have to be her?

He felt a hand on his shoulder. “I truly am sorry, Ricardo,” Jacob told him. He didn’t answer the all-powerful being. The two of them just existed in silence as they mourned her.

So yeah, here he sat wishing things were different. He sat there wallowing in grief and pity. This man was going to bury Rachel’s books, notebook, and sketchbook in a box and bury it. But now? He just had to stare out at the ocean for a little while.

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, this is what happened to Richard during the show, after Rachel died.

When more people finally arrived on the island, Richard felt prepared, yet unprepared at the same time. The first challenge he and his people had was the US army. They wanted to test a hydrogen bomb on the island. Their rifles looked like the one Rachel had. The soldiers never got to detonate the bomb, however. He kept seeing parts of Rachel in Eloise. He trusted her, and she eventually became their leader. Their second challenge was the DHARMA Initiative. A group of people who wanted to conduct experiments on the island. Sooner or later, they got rid of them too, but not before finding some people.

Richard found people from Rachel’s side of the journal. First, it was Jim LaFleur. The only reason they met was because someone from the DHARMA Initiative killed two of his people. So, when Richard went to the Barracks, he was interested as to why someone who wasn’t a leader of this organization would approach him.

“Hello, Richard,” the blonde greeted as he walked up to him on a bench.

Ricardo couldn’t pinpoint it at first, telling the man, “I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

The blonde averted his gaze for a second before saying, “I’m the guy who killed your men.” He had this deathly serious look to him. “Heard some gunshots,” he elaborated. “Saw two men throw a bag over a woman’s head. I gave ‘em a chance to throw their weapons down and walk away. One of ‘em took a shot at me and  _ I _ defended myself.”

Alpert blinked. “Is that so?” He wondered why this man would confess.

“That’s so.”

“Your people know that you’re telling me this?”

He shrugged. “Ain’t my people, hoss. So if you got some kind of a truce with ‘em, it ain’t been broken.”

Oh, realized. “If you’re not a member of the DHARMA Initiative, what are you?”

The blonde thought about this for a moment. Next, he sat down next to him. “Did you bury the bomb?”

How would he know about the bomb? “Excuse me?”

“The hydrogen bomb. The Jughead. Did you bury it?” They stared at each other for a small moment. “Yeah, I know about that. I also know that twenty years ago, some bald fella limped into your camp giving you some mumbo jumbo about being your leader. Then, poof. He went and disappeared right in front of you. Any of this ringing a bell? That man’s name is John Locke, and I’m waiting for him to come back. So, still think I’m a member of the damn DHARMA Initiative?”

John Locke. The very same John Locke mentioned in Rachel’s journal? That guy? Well, if he’s John Locke, then that would make this man Sawyer. Now that he thought about it, this man looked exactly how Rachel described him.

“No,” Richard answered the man. “Guess I don’t. It wouldn’t matter who you are. Two of my men are dead, and my people need some kind of justice. What are we gonna do about that?”

The next person from Rachel’s journal that he ran into was Miles. According to her, they only knew each other for a short while before the island lit up. He was also making rounds as a security guard before coming across Rachel’s grave. The man bent over it as if he was experiencing something. The only reason he guessed it was Miles, was because of the way Rachel described his ghost power. While watching him, Ricardo accidentally stepped on a twig.

The asian man turned around. “You shouldn’t be here,” he told him. Richard could have sworn that he saw this man before. “This is DHARMA territory.”

“It wasn’t when I buried her,” the man told him, choosing to keep his distance. After staring at the guy for a little while, he finally recognized him. “You were one of the ones who disappeared.” Miles kept a blank face. “At my people’s camp, we captured you and then you disappeared.”

“Yeah,” Miles sighed as he stood. “Well, as a friend of mine once said, ‘Time travel’s a bitch.’”

The immortal lips curled up. “I didn’t believe it at first when she told me she was from the future, but I guess it really is true.” He studied Miles’ posture. “How did you know Rachel?”

Miles tilted his head as if debating whether or not he should tell this man anything. “I stumbled upon her group.” His lips pursed into a frown. “I didn’t get to know her all that well.”

Richard studied the ground for a small moment. “Rachel was…” he exhaled. “An amazing person.”

Miles glanced at his van. “I’m going to go,” he said out loud. “I won’t tell them that I saw you on patrol.”

As he stepped inside the vehicle, Richard muttered, “Thank you.”

Other people from LaFleur’s group also seemed familiar from Rachel’s journal; Juliet, Jin, and later, Hurley, Kate, and Jack. Unfortunately, that group, as well as a few others, died trying to detonate the hydrogen bomb to defuse the pocket of electromagnetism.

The other two people he found were kids named Benjamin Linus and Sam Rubin. Over time, however, Sam changed his last name to Carraway. Richard knew then that this kid would eventually become Rachel’s father. Unknowingly, he looked out for Sam more than anyone else. After they killed all of the DHARMA Initiative, one more kid entered their ranks, Ethan.

By that time, Eloise had left the island, leaving Widmore in charge. He sent Sam off the island so that he could study and one day come back. Richard knew that he would never come back. 

In the first four years of 2000, Richard waited patiently for the arrival of Oceanic 815. When they finally did crash here, he fought the urge to be happy about it. After all, young Rachel Carraway was on that plane. He fought the urge to go see her, even when she got captured with Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. 

Jack, Kate, and Sawyer. Those three were there in the 1970s, right? Ugh, he thought. Time travel.

When Richard finally met young Rachel the day described in the book, he was nervous. He didn’t really know what to say even though he did. He didn’t want to mess this up. Richard knew what she would think of him, but wished that she didn’t. 

As she walked up to the Flame, he approached her. Already he made her nervous. She turned around with a slight yelp and aimed her rifle at him. He hadn’t looked at that rifle in a long time. “Hello, Rachel,” he greeted with his hands up. “I’m Richard, or rather, Ricardo, as you will come to know me. We haven’t had a chance to talk yet, but now, I have something to ask you.” There would only be a few days left until Alex dies. A few days after that, the island would glow. Besides, this would give her cause for concern. 

She kept her weapon aimed at him. “And what makes you think I’ll answer?”

He smiled and averted her eyes for a moment. Gosh this was nerve-wracking. “Has the black smoke spoken with you yet?”

Her brows creased as she played dumb. “What, you mean the smoke thing can talk?”

Ricardo sighed and cursed in Spanish. He expected her to be difficult but it still disappointed him. Why couldn’t she have just trusted him? Besides, in her journal, she said that she only played dumb because he had just four days ago. Richard’s Rachel said it was later than that. “He’s jumping the gun,” the immortal muttered. Noticing his gaze, he told her, “I can tell that you’re lying.”

“How?”

Richard shrugged. “I just can.” His expression became serious. “Which forms has he taken? And don’t lie.”

“My father, Elena, Shannon, and just recently, my brother.” He noticed that she still had her weapon aimed at him. “Now tell me, why are you asking me those things?”

The man decided to avoid her question and ask her another. “Have you seen any spirits lately?” She didn’t answer. “Rachel, you can tell me.”

“My dad, Elena, Shannon, my mom, and Eko. Again.” She stepped closer to him. “Why?”

“Because,” the dark haired man nearly smiled. “Your future is my past. I have been waiting about a century for you to come to this island again. I’m trying to help you.”

Her eyes widened with a wide range of emotions. In an attempt to calm her down he said, “Rachel-”

“Stay the hell away from me,” she seethed before walking away.

Ricardo rubbed his temples. It went according to the journal, but he also wished that it went a whole lot better.

The second interaction didn’t go that much better. They met again by the four-toed statue. Per Rachel’s journal, he brought a towel. As she walked out of the ocean wearing a bathing suit and spotted him, she asked, “What, are you stalking me now?”

Ricardo almost smiled. “Your past is my future, remember?” He held the towel out for her to grab. “You told me where you were at certain points.”

“I’ll believe that when it happens,” the redhead told him. She didn’t take the towel, even though she kept glancing at it.

“Just take it,” Ricardo sighed. “It doesn’t have any chloroform or anything like that.” The teenager sighed before taking the cloth and drying herself. He then looked at the structure. “Strange statue, isn’t it?”

“You should have seen it when it was fully there,” she said as she too looked its way. How would she have seen it?

The dark-haired man nodded. “Oh, I have.”

She looked at him confused. “You have?”

“I was on a slave ship, you see. I managed to get a look at it before the ship crashed into its head.”

“You were?”

He studied her for a moment, debating whether or not he should ask a question he already knew the answer to. “Have  _ you  _ seen it?”

“Only in dreams,” she said as she put a few of her clothes back on. “What are you doing here?”

He frowned, not sure if he was ready to do this. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me with just words, so I wanted to show you something.” Richard turned around and walked away, hoping that she would follow.

“And why would i go with you?” she projected.

“Because, you’re curious, like your father.” Why did he say that? He wasn’t exactly sure. Scratch that, he knew why. Mentioning her father would get her to come along because she was still curious about the man’s connection to this island.

It was night when they finally reached their destination. Richard had a torch with him. Once the two of them reached the grave she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“This is fake,” she decided. “What game are you playing at?” No amount of words from Rachel’s journal prepared him for the look in her eyes. Confusion, panic, disbelief, shock, hope that this wouldn’t happen.

“What?” he asked, trying to keep his own emotions in check. “Just because it has your name on it, you refuse to believe? Rachel, I buried you myself. I even took your father to see it once. Or rather, I was with him when he discovered it.” She kept staring at him with wide eyes. “You can’t run from this, Rachel. It’s going to happen at some point in your life.”

She shook her head vigorously. “No, it’s not.” She started getting upset. Richard tried to speak with her again, but she ran away.

Again, he wished things could be different. Everything about this felt weird but familiar. He held onto that familiarity tightly. He wished that Rachel wouldn’t shy away from him. He wished that Rachel remembered, even though he knew that was impossible. He wished  _ his _ Rachel would still be alive right now, immortal, like him. That was equally impossible. He hated that she probably hated him then.

A few days later, Jacob approached him. He didn’t come from the direction of the statue, which he found interesting. In fact, Jacob came from the location of the Cabin.

“Mercenaries are coming to the island. I need you to get Rachel to the Temple.”

“Yes, of course.”

The immortal man walked through the forest in a hurry, but he stopped when he saw Rachel’s bag and rifle lying on the ground. This could only mean that she and Alex have already been captured. He picked the items up and developed faster feet. He needed to find her, and soon. When he eventually did, his pace slowed out of shock. Rachel’s journal told Ricardo that she would be injured, but he was not prepared with how injured she actually was. The girl was extremely out of it, too. 

“Rachel?” he asked as he urgently went to her side. He tried to keep her conscious. Her injury wasn’t something that Shephard could treat, given that he must be on the other side of the island by now. She needed to be taken to the Temple to be healed efficiently. “Rachel, can you hear me?” Her eyes blinked as she moved ever so slightly. “Come on, Rachel, what’s your favorite color?” This man was filled with panic. “Rachel?!”

“Get away from her!!!” Sawyer bellowed. Ricardo had to remind himself that this was not the Sawyer he met thirty years ago.

The dark-haired man stood up slowly with his hands up, recognizing Miles and Claire. “Listen, you don’t understand-”

“I think I have a pretty good idea,” the man stated aggressively. “She’s been shot, but she ain’t dead. She’s bleeding to death.” His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. “And you need to leave.”

“Please-”

“She’s been shot in the heart! We need to get her to a doctor, now!” Miles and Sawyer spoke between each other for a moment.

“Sawyer?” Rachel began to stir. Somehow, he felt jealous of how responsive she was to Sawyer’s voice. Yet, if she was going to live, Rachel needed to be taken to the healing spring  _ now. _

“I’m here, little red,” the con man told her. He then gave his weapon to Miles before moving to pick her up. “Let’s get you up. I’ll get you back to the beach so Jack can fix you up, alright?” She made a noncommittal noise in response. 

Richard panicked even more. Before they could leave, he stepped towards him. “She’s not going to make it to the beach unless you can get there in two hours.”

Sawyer stopped moving and turned around. “What are you suggesting then?” he asked angrily.

“Let me take her,” the immortal man offered. “I know someone who can heal her.” That was a lie, but hopefully, it would make them give her over.

The gruff, con man stood there in thought for a moment. The stubborn son of a bitch really didn’t want to give the teen over to someone he barely knows.

Finally, Claire broke the ice. “Jesus, Sawyer, just give Claire to him!” she shouted. “Standing around here won’t help her and we sure as hell won’t make it back to camp in two hours! I believe him.”

The blonde man stood there for a minute longer before giving in. “Fine!” He gently handed Rachel to him. “But once she’s okay, you tell her to come back to the beach.”

“Of course,” he promised before walking hurrying to the temple.

  
  


He held her under the water like he felt he should have done with her years ago. The hourglass ran out as soon as she regained consciousness. 

Rachel coughed out some water. “Where am I?” she asked groggily. 

“You’re in the Temple’s healing spring,” Richard told her.

“I’m in the Temple?” she asked, getting out of his hold. 

“Yes,” he replied as he steadied her. “You should take it easy, even though you’re healed.” Just like everyone else, she won’t remember what happened to her.

“I was hurt?” she gathered. 

Even though she wouldn’t remember anyway, he felt that he owed her an explanation as to how she got there. “Shot, actually.”

She blinked, unsure of what she just heard. “What?” She then looked as if she saw something, or remembered something. This never happened to people who’ve been healed before. Perhaps this was one of the many other reasons why she was special. “They’re dead,” she muttered.

“What?” Richard asked, moving closer to her.

“Her voice quivered. “Alex, Karl, and Rousseau. They’re dead!”

Richard moved to comfort her. He held her tightly as she wept on his shoulder. “Was it those mercenaries?” he asked gently. All she could do was nod her head and sob. An anger growed in him. Not only did they come here to kill Bin and wreak havoc, but they also hurt someone dear to him.

Abruptly she stood and held her head in pain. Ricardo guessed that she remembered something else. He gave her a look that silently asked her if she was okay. Looking back at the water, she touched the spot where she was shot.

“Stupid Lazarus Pit,” she muttered as she put her pack on and held her rifle. She studied the room before looking back at his confused expression. “It’s from a comic book.”

“Oh,” said Richard, pretending that he saw one before.

“What day is it?”

He knew how she always liked keeping track of the days. “December 30th. You’ve been here for ninety-eight days.” 

“So this is the Temple,” she said as she resumed looking around. “Jacob told me that you would bring me here, and that I was special.”

“You are special,” he confirmed with a smile. “It might not seem like it now, but when I met you all those years ago, not only could the dead speak to you, but you could also summon them.” he took in her confused expression and chose to change the subject. “Come on, I’ll show you around.” He could show her around so that she’ll know her way in the future.

While they walked, his people stared, but he didn’t mind. When one of them asked her about Alex, she got upset again, so he took her to another spot.

Once he showed her everything, he halted in the hallway. She gave him a confused look. He frowned. “As much as I would like for you to stay, I promised Sawyer that I’d let you go back to the beach once you were alright. And I am a man of my word.”

She sighed. “Of course he’d say that.” the teen placed the rifle’s strap onto her shoulder before placing her hands on her hips. I almost didn’t want to leave. This was the perfect place to hide while mercenaries were running around. “What about the mercs?” she asked. “I mean, I have one gun, and they have numbers.”

“I know,” he said, leading me down another passageway. “Which is why you’re taking the back entrance.”

She peered at him strangely. The two of us came across a hieroglyph that looked almost like the Greek Omega sign. Richard pressed the hieroglyph. A secret door opened.

“This leads far beyond the outer wall,” he told her as she stepped through. “There are connecting tunnels that go underneath the barracks. Take the one to the left of the spring and it will get you somewhere close to the beach in a day or so.” He then handed her a torch before giving it flame with a lighter. “Good luck.”

“Hey,” she said before he could go away. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He closed the door. He breathed out a sigh of relief. He wished she didn’t have to go. 

On his way back, Dogen and Lennon approached her. “Why did you show her around?” Lennon asked him.

“Because,” Richard paused. “She’s going to be the reason I know about this place.” Not wanting to explain himself further, he walked away. When he could, Ricardo snuck away and buried Alex’s body.

When the bright light came, he knew he would never see Rachel again.

After The Man in Black tricked him into leading him to Jacob, he began to lose faith. It had been a very long time since the Man in Black tried to get Richard to join him. As everyone waited outside, they didn’t realize that Jacob had been killed until it was too late. The flare had been shot. The person who they thought was Locke and Linus walked out of the structure under the statue. 

“Wait, don’t shoot!” he shouted at Ilana’s people.

“Hello, Richard,” the bald man stated. “It’s good to see you out of those chains.”

Ricardo’s eyes widened. He didn’t think that the man would make another move. “You?”

Not-Locke smiled. “Me.” He then hit his throat and knocked him out.

The immortal man woke up in a strange contraption alone and high off the ground. The only reason why he could tell that was due to the swinging the trap did. He was up there for hours, scared and panicking. Why did he look like Locke? Why now? How? Did he get Linus to kill Jacob? Could Richard die now?

A fall brought him out of his thoughts. He hit the ground roughly. The seemingly immortal man rangled himself free to find not-Locke standing there. “Thirsty?” The Man in Black asked him as he handed him a canteen of water. If he didn’t know any better, Ricardo might have called him an old friend offering assistance. Yet, Richard took the water and drank it anyway.

After a few gulps, the Man took the canteen away. “Richard, I’m sorry I hit you in the throat and dragged you off the beach, but I had to do  _ some _ thing.”

“What do you want?” 

“What I always wanted,” he told Richard calmly. “For you to join me.”

Ricardo remembered Rachel, and how the Man in Black inevitably stabbed and killed her because she wouldn’t join him. He remembered the Man telling him that he stabbed her as a consequence for him for not joining him in the first place. “Why do you look like John Locke?”

“I knew he’d get me access to Jacob, because John’s a candidate.” What? “Or at least he  _ was _ a candidate.”

“What do you mean, a candidate?” Richard asked him as he stood up, not believing him.

The Man gave him a blank expression. “Didn’t Jacob ever tell you any of this?”

Any of what?”

Not-Locke glanced away for a second. “Oh, Richard, I’m sorry. You mean, you’ve been doing everything he told you all this time and he never said why?” Richard slowly began to realize that this man was right, and that scared him. “I would never have done that to you. I would never have kept you in the dark.”

Out of curiosity, and still trying not to believe him, Alpert questioned, “And what would you have done?”

“I would have treated you with respect.” He took one step closer. “Come with me, and I promise, I’ll tell you everything.”

Part of him wanted to say yes, but the other part told him to remember Rachel. “No,” he decided, shaking his head.

“Are you sure about that Richard?” Something sinister could be detected in the bald man’s tone. “Because people seldom get a second chance.”

Ricardo took one step closer and stated with confidence, “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“Alright.” something caught Not-Locke’s eyes. Richard could have sworn his eyes showed a hint of worry.

“What?” asked the Spaniard, turning to look that way as well. But he couldn’t see anything but the jungle. Alpert wondered if he had seen a ghost. If so, whose? He thought it could have been Rachel’s.

“I’ll be seeing you, Richard.” The Man in Black gathered a few things before walking off. “Sooner than you think.”

The more Ricardo thought about it, the more it bugged him. No, Jacob did not share a lot of things with Richard. Yes, he followed his command. But now that man is gone. What is he going to do now? He thought about going back to the Temple. He hoped there were still people there. 

What he didn’t expect to see was Jack and Hurley arguing about which way the Temple was. He quickly settled the argument by telling them a completely different direction. 

However, once he arrived, he saw the destruction. Every person who stayed at the Temple was killed. Everyone. Those of his people who were still alive, aligned themselves with the Man in Black.

Okay, he thought. This is extremely bad. He didn’t want to join the man in Black. But it might be better if he joined Rachel in the afterlife. That is, if he still could. What was he saying, of course he still could. Why? Because if Jacob is truly dead, then Richard could finally die. Where would he do that? The Black Rock’s not a bad place to start. 

Jack and Hurley accompanied him, unaware of his plan and asking all sorts of questions. Once they finally arrived at the Black Rock, Richard declared that he was going to die.

As they stepped inside, Jack asked, “Ever been here before?”

“Yes,” Richard replied, inspecting the chains that once held him. “And in all the time I’ve spent here on this island, today is the first day I’ve ever come back.”

“Dude? Where are you?” Hurley asked from the top of the ship.

“Down here, Hurley!” Jack projected.

The overweight man walked down the steps just in time to see Richard opening the dynamite crate. He soon rushed towards them. “Don’t open that! There’s dynamite in there! It’s mega unstable.”

“I know,” Ricardo replied. He was going to do this. He hoped it would work. And yet, there was a small part of him that said Rachel wouldn’t want to see him like this. Then, there was another part of him reminding Ricardo that she was dead, and that since Jacob was dead, the immortality warn off. Long story short, he could join her in death.

“So did Doctor Arzt,” Reyes commented. “And I was wiping out of my shirt two days later.” He then turned to the medical doctor. “Dude, it’s time to go.”

“No, not yet,” Jack decided.

“He's opening up a crate of dynamite, and he said he wanted to kill himself.”

“I  _ can’t  _ kill myself,” Ricardo corrected.

“What?”

“Even if I wanted to, trust me, I do. I can’t kill myself, which is why I want you to do it for me.” He stared at them with conviction. 

“What are you talking about?” Jack questioned.

“What I'm talking about Jack is that...Jacob touched me, and when Jacob touches you... well it's considered a gift... except it's not a gift at all. It's a curse.” He threw a boom stick roughly. It didn’t go off. 

Hurley’s face adopted pure fear as he said, “Dude, seriously, let’s go!”

“Why do you want to die?” Jack asked.

“ I devoted my life, longer than you can possibly imagine, in service of a man who told me that everything was happening for a reason, that he had a plan, a plan that I was a part of, when the time was right that he'd share it with me. And now that man's gone. So,” he said as he sat down on a nearby crate. “Why do I want to die? Because I just found out my entire life had no purpose. Now if I light this myself it won't work, but you can light it for me Jack. I made the fuse long enough so you'll have time to get out.”

After some thought, Jack took a stick of dynamite in his hands. “Jack, please tell me you aren’t considering this!” Hurley pleaded.

The doctor extended the fuse. “If he wants to die, there’s nothing we’re going to do to stop it.” He then walked over to the lamp and caught a stick on fire. He then used the stick to light the fuse.

Richard exhaled with relief. “Thank you.”

Shepherd sat down next to him. “Now let’s talk.” The Spaniard stared at him with disbelief. Why wasn’t he leaving? Does he really have the gall to stay with him?

“Jack!” Reyes yelled urgently. “Dude, we gotta go. The guy’s crazy! And I  _ know _ crazy!”

“Hurley, go ahead, we’ll be alright,” Jack told him.

“Dude, you’re gonna blow up!”

As the two of them argued, Richard couldn’t help but watch the fuse as it got shorter and shorter.

When Hurley finally conceded, the large man declared, “If you change your mind, I’ll be like a mile away.” He then ran off.

“Jack, you should go,” Richard told him.

“No, Richard, I shouldn’t.”

“You’re gonna die.”

“Actually, I don’t think either one of us is gonna die.” He sounded so confident.

Ricardo’s eyes flickered between him and the fuse. “What makes you think that?”

“ I just came from a lighthouse...where my name was etched in wood on a dial. I turned a mirror that somehow reflected the image of the house I grew up in.” Richard looked at the fuse again. It was getting shorter. Jack kept his eyes on Richardo. “Jacob's lighthouse. He got Hurley to bring me out there because he wanted me to see what was reflected in that mirror. For some reason he wanted me to  _ know  _ that he had been watching me ever since I was a kid.”

“Why?”

“I have no idea why. But I'm willing to bet you that if Jacob went to that trouble… that he brought me to this island for a reason, and it's not to blow up sitting here with you right now.”

“That’s a pretty big risk you’re taking, Jack. What if you’re wrong.” Panic built up in him as the fuse got shorter and shorter.

Jack shook his head. “I’m not.” Yet, the man closed his eyes. Richard watched the fuse almost go out. The dynamite almost detonated, but it didn’t. Why? Why not? Couldn’t God have just let him die in peace? Why didn’t it work? Does this mean I get a second chance?

Sighs of relief escaped from both of them. Jack joked, “Wanna try another stick?” 

But Richard wasn’t having it. “Alright Jack. You seem to have all the answers. So, what now?”

“We go back to where we started.”

He followed the 815 survivors back to their beach and watched them reunite with the people there happily. He only wished that Rachel were here. Later that night, however, when Ilana implied that Ricardo knew what to do next, it bemused him. Jacob didn’t tell him anything. And the notion that he did was starting to get annoying. With renewed cynicism, he declared that they were in Hell and stormed off.

He arrived at the bench where he buried Rachel’s books, backpack, sketchbook, and rifle. The only thing that wasn’t there was her journal which he supposed he should try to retrieve from the camp up the beach.

Richard carefully took out her sketchbook and flipped to the page that contained the drawing of the Man in Black. He then looked to the sky and shouted,  “I changed my mind! I was wrong! You said I could change my mind! You said the offer would stand! Does the offer still stand?” Nothing. “Does the offer still stand?!” He began to rip the drawing from the book. “I have what you want right here!!”

The snap of a twig made Richard jump.

“What offer, dude?” Hugo questioned him. 

Richard stared at him in shock. “What the Hell are you doing here?” He asked him in an angered tone. “Did you follow me?”

“Rachel actually-“

Richard pointed at him. “Don’t you dare speak her name! Is this some kind of ploy?! I told you people: I don’t know anything!”

“Just,” Hurley paused. “Calm down dude.”

“Why?!” He almost lashed out.

“Dude, she’s standing right next to you,” the brown haired male stated.

Ricardo looked as if he might cry. He faced his left. He wondered if this were true.

“Sure,” the big man stated. Alpert could only guess that he was talking to Rachel.

“My death was not your fault, Ricardo. It was the Man in Black’s and no one else’s!”

“I miss you, ya’know?” The faint hint of a smile appeared on Richard’s lips.

“She knows,” Hurley answered for me.

Hugo went on. “You have to stay on Jacob’s side.” He faltered. “If you don’t, we’re all going to the a-actual Hell.” 

“I understand, Rachel,” Richard stated, slowly opening his eyes. He searched for reasoning in the ground. The man then closed the sketchbook and put it back into the bag. After, he packed all of her things. “I’m sorry for ever doubting. He said that if I ever changed my mind I would have to bring that drawing of him as proof.”

“She said that’s okay.” A strangely content silence hung about.

“Is she gone?”

“Yeah, dude, she’s gone.”

The two of them headed back to camp. In the morning, he journeyed to his people’s camp beside the sea and retrieved her notebook.

When Miles plucked the grey hair off of Richard’s head, he finally felt alive again. He now knew that Jacob’s ‘gift’ to him was fading. He wished Rachel was here to see this. He wished that she somehow time traveled back, even though he knew that was impossible.

When the plane finally lifted off the ground, the shaking stopped. Richard exhaled a sigh of relief. They were going to leave this island for good. The man found himself still wishing that Rachel was there. He wished that she left with them. But that could never happen.

But one question still remained. What now? 


End file.
